Federated Search - Release Plan Q1 2020
What’s coming in version 3.0
Learn more about Federated Search and how it's being used by large enterprises to deliver a unified search experience in our upcoming Acquia webinar.
As an application, Federated Search needs to keep pace with changes in React and Drupal. On 1 January 2020, the Search API Solr module deprecated its 1.x branch in favor of 3.x, which supports Solr 7. Similarly, Acquia will be discontinuing Solr 4 in favor of Solr 7 throughout 2020.
In order to best support sites using the Federated Search application, we have created a 3.x version of the application that is compatible with the latest changes in Drupal, React, and Solr. Moving forward, there will be two versions of the application:
- 3.x - The current feature release. Future work, including Drupal 9 compatibility, will be done on this branch.
- 2.x - The legacy stable release. No further development work will be done on this release.
Our intention is to allow sites to continue using the 2.x version of the application as long as it suits their needs. We also need to be prepared for upgrading sites to Solr 7 and Drupal 9.
The 3.x version does not add any new features at this time. See the section on Major Changes for information about upgrading your installation.
Requirements
The following software elements are required for each release:
- 3.x Requirements
- Solr 6.4 or higher
- Federated Search React 3.0.0
- This application is automatically added by the module.
- Drupal 7.69 or higher
- Search API Solr 7.x-1.15
- Search API Federated Solr 7.x-3.0 or higher
- Drupal 8.8.2 or higher
- Search API Solr 8.x-3.9 or higher
- Search API Federated Solr 8.x-3.0 or higher
- Search API Field Map 8.x-3.0 or higher
- 2.x Requirements
- Solr 4.5 - Solr 6.3
- Federated Search React 2.1.4
- This application is automatically added by the module.
- Drupal 7.69 or higher
- Search API Solr 7.x-1.15
- Search API Federated Solr 7.x-2.6
- Drupal 8.8.2 or higher
- Search API Solr 8.x-1.4
- Search API Federated Solr 8.x-2.9
- Search API Field Map 8.x-1.5 (for Drupal 8 only)
Major Changes
When you migrate to a new version of Solr, your schema will need to change. There are detailed instructions for these changes in the README files shipped with the module.
In addition to upgraded support for Solr 7 and 8, the 3.x branch of the application features improved CSS that has better namespacing to avoid collisions with existing site code.
Upgrade Steps
- Update the modules and their dependencies.
- Configure search indexes for Solr 7.
- Re-index your site content.
- Rename any custom CSS to use the new ‘fs-’ namespace prefix.
Maintenance Plan
Moving forward, the next release will address Drupal 9 compatibility. We are then looking at adding additional features to the application.